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Cable Costs Relative to System

Since making a spread sheet with my audio system prices, I have been thinking(shocked) about my total investment in cables. My total system retails at $67,000 (Digital and analog front ends included). I purchased all of it here on Audiogon so my investment is about 50%. Of that I have about 10% invested in interconnects and cables and another 10% in Power Cables (Shunyata Hydra included). That's $13,000 worth of wire. I'm starting to question whether it might be more effective to put some of this budget into acitve components. It would take forever to listen to all possible combinations, but would like to hear others experiences with relatively high end systems and cable selection. It would seem to me that the point of diminishing returns would be reached sooner with cables than with speakers and amps. Do most of you follow the 10% "rule" for cabling? How do PCs fit into this rule? Are there any super bargain cables capable of keeping up with highly resolving electronics?
metaphysics
pops
2,275 posts
 
No doubt Audiolab - as you very well know I am in that camp! LOL - it just seems strange...thats all! 350 lbs of speaker with wire, drivers, parts, furniture and then.....a wire. Some things you just can't understand like for instance.....how does the beam me up on Star Trek work? Or the phasers - I could use one of those - set to stun only of course...
budburma
345 posts
 
An old thread, with age old pondering and always new thinking! Surprise! Long ago and far away, my cable costs rocketed likely eclipsing the cost of the rest of my gear now. For me, it's apparent/obvious that cables are an essential component to bring out the best in a system or from a component. Definitely easier to tune in a system with cables than changing the gear, especially since most of us have spent a lot of time finding the right combo of gear. I think sinking money into power cables and interconnects is a great way to get the best out your system, for sure. Still muddling about with it somewhat, especially speaker cabling. But what a good time!
jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,503 posts
 
I follow A'gon member Elizabeth's tips about cable costs relative to system. I do 10-15% of what I paid for my system to get the money I wanted to spend on cabling. For an upper end of the cable budget I did 10-15% of MSRP of my entire system.
budburma
345 posts
 
That's an interesting point. MRSP of everything as the standard including cables would change things, but give a standard benchmark. MRSP of cables, too. Hmmm, back to the chalkboard!
audiolabyrinth's avatar
audiolabyrinth
4,555 posts
 
I like Budburma's 2-18-14 post, Bud, do not go back to the chalk board!, that old adage 10-15% for cables to system is from what I been told, from the cable companys back in the fricken 80s!, I recently read this so called rule of thumb here on audiogon over the last few months, In the 30 years I have been doing audio, that has never worked for me, I have more money in cables than I do the entire system, My amp is $14,000.00 so you can imagine the cables I have are top performers, I do not regret having at all, sounds good to me!
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